Is Stalin still with us, why are we still talking about Stalin and Stalinism today?

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Is Stalin still with us, why are we still talking about Stalin and Stalinism today?

On 25th May 2013, timed to coincide with the anniversary of Andrei Sakharov’s birth, The Sakharov Centre held a mini-series of three debates within the Festival of Freedom. The first of these debates was entitled Is Stalin still with us, why are we still talking about Stalin and Stalinism today?.

The Sakharov Centre determined upon this topic due to the present perception of Stalin within Russia. Demand for Stalin has been mushrooming with people calling him “an efficient manager”, drawing his pictures on buses and building monuments to him. Those who know history, and do not share such a barbarous set of values, feel angry, disgusted and horrified. To some it then seems natural to alert people to the reality, to remind them of the millions who were murdered, of the rivers of blood, of the necessity to ensure that it can not all happen again. However, perhaps this distasteful trend is in any case not all that dangerous? Maybe Stalinism is unable to repeat itself in today’s world? Indeed, perhaps it is only concerned academics speaking so much about Stalin that keeps the subject topical and him away from the scrapyard of history? Maybe designers of such events are wrong to obsess so much about the dreadful past instead of concentrating upon the bright prospects for the future?

Participants

Moderator

Mikhail Kaluzhsky is a journalist, playwright, translator and curator of The Sakharov Centre’s documentary theatre projects.

Speakers

Sergei Kuznetsov is a journalist, writer, translator, cultural analyst, the head of SKCG (a social media marketing agency), the head of Booknik.ru (an online magazine about Jewish culture), winner of the The World of Sci-Fi magazine’s 2011 Outcomes – Prize and winner of The Jewish Culture Centre’s Man of the Year – 5771 award.

Alexander Cherkasov is the head of The Memorial human rights centre, a board member of The Memorial’s international historical society, a participant on multiple human rights missions within the areas of armed conflicts in the North Caucasus and author and co-author of a number of books and reports on the human rights situation in Chechnya.

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